The show of shame in Tokyo

So the Olympics have come and gone for what they did not bring us – medals and national relief. If ever the Nigerian nation needed cheer, this is one such moment – ask BBNaija followers. After accepting to host the games the Japanese found the world was struggling to bury the half-dead ghost of the global pandemic. Timing was not right, but the world just had to go ahead with it. In its many battles against plagues, humanity has often survived on tenacity than winning.

For Nigerian hospitals, or what the signpost is left of it that is shutting down in the midst of a crippling pandemic, it failed our athletes. Under normal circumstances, corruption would not have made room for due diligence for the screening of global athletes. Our nation has surrendered to corruption as a national emblem. Rather than tackle it, we often very easily move ahead believing nothing could change. It is a defeatist attitude for a nation with so much potential.

Our labour minister, a trained medical doctor swears by his diminutive swagger, to sack the doctors that the country needs more than life. Doctors are next to God in any society, those who toy with them harvest death and destruction. In the midst of all this, our president left not for Tokyo to cheer the national team but as a devoted specimen on a foreign doctor’s gurney. In his mind he is being consistent to the same doctor for over 40 years. Scripture is right – as a man thinks, so is he! It should not bother us – his life, his choice. But we must since majority could not jump on a plane to go see their doctors. Indeed a lot of us blame non-existent witches and wizards and unseen forces for the failures of our leaders. The leaders encourage us to think so by licensing a church, mosque or shrine for every two blocks. It should bother us, the qualified privileges we bestow on our leaders.

As the games wrapped up, we are left with different optics, the most poignant of which was the shameful picture of our medal hopeful manually scrubbing his jersey in between games. One of the wealthiest nations of earth could neither kit its Olympics contingent nor pay to dry-clean their Spartan wardrobe.

While destitution is not a crime, it is a shameful lapel for a nation so endowed. It so happened that long before the Olympics, officials signed for Puma to kit our contingent. The athletes left, but the kits were locked behind. Pride, arrogance and incompetence prevented the sports ministry to work symbiotically with its sister agencies.

There was a $2.7 million dollar deal on the ground and not even a youthful minister in charge of sports, could have saved us the national embarrassment. It is true that most countries vote in clueless leaders who in turn select rookies as cabinet members. It becomes tragic when the rookie turns their back on knowledge. When given a role that’s beyond their weight, you have a duty to break bones to achieve excellence or ship out.

This is why the journalism profession is difficult to regulate, unlike other professions – journalism recognises that a good doctor could sometimes beat the best health reporter in breaking down health care stories. Good doctors have done well as health correspondents; lawyers as judicial reporters and engineers as engineering writers.

How did my very good friend, Sunday Dare allow himself to be so embarrassed at an international level? It is true that he had no prior sports medal to his name, but he has proven himself in other endeavours outside his trained field to make quick adaptation a modus vivendi. He could have leveraged on the experience and expertise of his sports writing colleagues to bring him up to speed with sports administration. I bet some would even have given him pro bono advice if asked.

Now that the curtain has fallen on the real Olympics, the nation needs to hear his personal and official redemption plans from this monumental disaster. Heads should begin to roll! He should institute and closely monitor a probe if he does not have the presence of mind to resign. He should not depend on the old attitude of ‘this too shall pass’ or claim, (like his boss) that he is ‘not aware’.  In the world of the privileged, ignorance is not an excuse for failure.

One is tempted to say that if these are the priests even God could not save the congregation. This wishy-washy way of handling national assignments is how Nigeria loses its best talents to talent scouts just to resort to filial catch up later.

It is shameful to see too many names of Nigerian descent competing for goals against their poorly trained and ill-motivated compatriots. While our constitution accepts dual citizenship, why are non-Nigerians not encouraged to come in and fly our own flags? Comforting ourselves that Nigerian sounding-names competing for other nations are Nigerians is hogwash. Why don’t we tag ourselves on the criminals whose criminality tarnishes our image as ours too?

There is nothing to be proud of when your country kills the dream of its patriots only to watch them picked up like orphans by others who have grown the manure to turn them into global stars. This was why pugilist Anthony Joshua lost me when he came to Nigeria with his titles full prostrate before a president who does nothing to groom talents.

We have built a nation that turns its back on prodigies. A mathematical prodigy returned to the farm with his hoe because nobody would give him the chance to be another Chike Obi. Too many young Nigerians have built things from the scratch using local raw materials only to watch their dreams die. They are the poster boys for why boko or western education is called haram by enemies of progress.

As our government sighs that it has bought Tucano planes from America as their loftiest achievements, our defence budget recently hit N5 trillion but not long ago, our air force launched Gulma, a locally made drone to help fight insurgents. Recently, we have hushed up the downing of our helicopter with thanksgiving that the pilot escaped.

A nation that shamefully ignored its arms needs and turns an arm-making defence industries corporation into a carpentry workshop is not worth its flag as a nation.

Until this nation understands the concept of shame, it would forever continue to pull well below its weight in achievements. And no, the way out is not to institute an independent Olympic committee. Very often, this nation parries responsibility by privatising accountability. The concept of if it doesn’t work privatise it only benefits the juggernauts of corruption. We should start making accountability a national pastime by probing why things don’t work.

Saying we’d adopt the ROC idea of the Russians is no way out. We need to think about adaptability of foreign concepts instead of just copying. We leapfrogged on communication but what happened when we privatised electricity generation and distribution? Didn’t we subsidise darkness? Nigeria demands explanation, apology and accountability. We should stop obsessing about what women wear and start wondering why we are where we are with our vastly untapped potentials. Shame on us, though our leaders have no concept of shame.